Search

International Mail Service Disruptions
A large number of international shipments have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. International shipments may experience longer than normal delivery times.Read more…

G1 - The clean version pedal mod

New member

Hello everybody, my first post here.
I really like the three circuits Malachite Overdrive, Tyrian Distortion and Sanguine Distortion, and I planning to build all of them, even if I don't know when.
I also have an idea but I don't know how much good is, maybe it's totally stupid. But I would like use the replica G2/G4 PCB to create a sort of G1 clean version pedal.
How you would do it? Tweaking the gain stages or jumpering them totally...

Well-known member

I think there is an easier path to a clean preamp / boost. Take a look at the clean and low-gain pedals on this site, go find some demos of the pedals that they replicate and see if you find one that does what you want. The TC Electronics Integrated Preamp, for example. The Chela can be easily detuned to get a clean boost.

New member

Thanks, Chuck.
Probably there are some nice clean boost with eq I could use for my target. I thought even to the ROG Tonemender, but it has a amp-like eq.
The Chela could be ok changing something, as you said. Its Baxandall three bands is ok, but I wanted something more close the the series of the gain pedal I mentioned early.
I would try to keep the same eq: a two band Baxandall plus a Mid control.

If you already have an assembled Malachite you can test most of this (except for omitting the LEDs) by jumping a 22K across R8 and a 1M resistor across the lugs of the Gain pot. It'll affect the taper of the Gain pot but you'll at least be able to get an idea of the max gain on tap.

Well-known member

You can leave R26 & C23 out, they don't do anything. I'd increase R23 to 100K so you're less likely to overdrive the last stage when the tone controls are dimed. If it's too dark, take out C14. If it's still too dark, take out C7 also. C7 and C14 are there to smooth out the LED clipping. If the LEDs are gone, you might not need those two caps. This could take some experimentation to dial it in.

Member

You can leave R26 & C23 out, they don't do anything. I'd increase R23 to 100K so you're less likely to overdrive the last stage when the tone controls are dimed. If it's too dark, take out C14. If it's still too dark, take out C7 also. C7 and C14 are there to smooth out the LED clipping. If the LEDs are gone, you might not need those two caps. This could take some experimentation to dial it in.

New member

Thanks a lot to everybody! I didn't build the Malachite nor the Sanguine, still not. But I like program everything with much time in advance.

I'll try all the suggested mod on my emulator software. This is what I can do, now. I have not too much material to emulate it, just the frequencies and a guitar sample, just to have an idea of response of the sound.
Meanwhile, I tried something by myself: omit the LED, the gain pot mod... I'll let you know what I get, even if it's not the circuit in the real life.
I guess I have to pay attention to the overall volume, because omitting the LED rise up the volume, but some cut of gain maybe will cut the output.

New member

I'm trying to emulate the schematic of the G2 with some mods.
1. Omitted the LEDs
2. Reduced R8 from 22k to 10K
3. Reduced Gain pot from 1M to 500k. But I setted it on 0.

Just a few of mods and the my clean guitar sample sounds clean at 0 gain. Maybe just a little bit less loud. But that's not a problem: the Volume pot is setted at 50%.
With the gain at max the sample sounds louder, not too much, and a get little bit of break up. Nothing bad with it.

We should see how will sound the real thing, but it could be a good starting ponit.

About other mods like R26 & C23, I tried to leave out in the original G2 schematic, and indeed doesn't change anything. The difference is just a tiny gain/volume loss of 0,2db in a large wide of the central spectrum. I'd leave it in anyway.
About C7 and C14 I'll keep in my mind both. In the modded version if I leave out just C7 I can hear a bit of more high frequency, but I have to compare when I will built it and see how much difference there is betwenn the effect on and the bypass, to make it more transaprent possible (even if the effect has an eq, of course). It could be useful use C7 or C14 to create a Bright switch.